Legislature costs too much, achieves too little

Aug. 21, 2010

Assembly members meet in the Capitol in Albany. The New York Legislature costs about $216 million annually and is the third most expensive state Legislature in the country. / Joe Larese/The Journal News

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Those who live by the credo "you get what you pay for" might be surprised by The Sunday Journal News report, "The Platinum Legislature," the first in a series by our Albany Bureau. The articles reveal, in great detail, what the state Legislature costs New Yorkers in dollars and cents. The numbers, startling by almost any measure, seem to have an inverse relationship to what actually gets accomplished — these days, close to zero in terms of the most important issues affecting the lives of ordinary residents.

They are paying alright, but not necessarily getting — not on economic development, not on property-tax reform, not on significant pension reform, not on major budget reform.

From the nearly $80,000 annual salary, to leadership stipends ranging from $9,000 to $41,500, to the $171 a day expense account members receive just for being in the Capitol when the Legislature is in session, legislators take home paychecks that most would envy for a part-time job.

The average New Yorker might ask, "Where do I sign up for such work?" They ought not hold their breath. The re-election rate for incumbent lawmakers is about 97 percent — notwithstanding voters' widespread dissatisfaction with the body as a whole; their opposition to individual legislators typically is not as pronounced.

Slack campaign-finance laws and incumbent-friendly redistricting discourage both challengers and turnover. So taxpayers keep paying for a damaging status quo.

The late budget

All this might not be so troubling, if the Legislature weren't mired in endless logjam. The 2010-11 state budget was more than four months late. While critics have long complained about "three men in a room" decision-making in Albany, that might have been preferable to the way budget negotiations unfolded this year. During the state's fiscal crisis, Gov. David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver often waited while the nearly deadlocked Senate chamber struggled to muster support for any number of endeavors. Weeks, and then months, went by without taxpayers getting anything substantive in return for their tax dollars and patience. The Senate only stepped up after Paterson started ramming his spending plan through with emergency budget extenders.

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The state's budget woes were hardly solved during this last crisis. The same contributing factors — from overly generous public-employee pensions and benefits to outdated contracting rules on public works projects — remain undisturbed . Likewise, despite a hue and cry over high property taxes, lawmakers could not agree on any much-discussed reforms, such as an annual cap on school and municipal tax increases. While New Jersey moves forward on these and like initiatives, New York continues to kick the can down the road.

Not a bargain

The New York Legislature costs about $216 million annually and is the third most expensive state Legislature in the country. It is 19th in terms of per capita cost, at about $11 a year per New Yorker. But some taxpayers are treated better than others, as the reporting by Albany Bureau's Cara Matthews shows. The most senior lawmakers in the majority party get more resources to carry out their duties.

For instance, consider that office expenses for Lower Hudson Valley lawmakers, for the period from April 2009 to March, range from $1.4 million, for Democrat Jeff Klein, the Senate deputy majority leader, who represents the Bronx and parts of southern Westchester, to $654,000, for Republican Sen. Thomas Morahan, who represented the 38th Senate District, which includes Rockland, until he passed away last month. Surely residents of Klein's district are not more deserving of state resources than those in the 38th District.

Political power also dictates how much money individual lawmakers get to spread around their districts in the form of grants or so-called member items. That's another absurdity that tradition, incumbency and dysfunction have left in place — no matter how much Albany watchdogs complain. Add all that up and one thing is clear: If the Legislature were free, it still would cost too much.